A World So Foreign
by sm0kenm1rrors
Summary: Ed uses himself as a sacrifice to bring back his beloved brother. But when he goes through the gate something unexpected happens. Takes off from the last ep of the OVA. Alternate to Cos.
1. Chapter 1

A World so Foreign 

I do not own FMA except my OC

Edward Elric stood in the center of a large transmutation circle inside the amber lit building in the sunken city under Central. He had smaller transmutation circles drawn on his left and right forearm as well as his sternum and his forehead. Still shocked that his beloved brother, Al, had used his metal body which had been infused with the philosopher's stone to bring him back from the dead, Ed prepared what he thought would be his last transmutation. Ed was prepared to now give _his _life in exchange for Al's.

"If what Dad told me was true, then Al's body and soul are still inside the gate" he murmured to himself. "I don't have anything to pay with but my own life…It might prove useless even if I offer all of myself, but he won't disappear." He paused for a sec. In a demanding tone, Ed whispers "Come back, Al". He claps his hands together, touches them to the rune on his chest as the circles on his body and the floor begin to glow an eerie blue light. Ed's blond hair waves gently as everything in his field of vision become a bright white.

Ed stood in empty space. Nothing but the infinite whiteness of the void surrounded him, and before him was that forsaken door. "Give me my brother back", he said. For a few seconds, there was a deafening silence. An omnipresent voice spoke back… "Do you wish to sacrifice yourself for the sake of your brother's body and soul?" In Edward's mind, there was no other option. "Yes", he replied. "Very well", the voice replied as the doors creaked open. Ed glared into the darkness, from which the body of his brother emerged. He was set down on the floor by the hundreds of black hands that were carrying him. "Be warned", said the deafening voice, which seemed to come from everywhere. "He gave up his memory of the years he spent in a foreign body so you can live." Ed kept silent, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. He walked up to Al, who had his eyes closed. "Poor Al, now that you have your body back I bet all those sleepless nights caught up to ya huh?" Ed was fighting back tears. He was about to hug him when all of a sudden the creepy black hands gripped on to Ed. They wrapped themselves around Ed's appendages and tugged him toward the door. "Noo wait! Let me say goodbye before you kill me! Please!" Ed screamed as he struggled to reach for his brother. The grand voice replied "Kill you? Why you belong to me now, I may do what a please. Me killing you is not what I had planned."

Ed fought, kicked, screamed, and this is when he felt something was terribly wrong. This was not the same feeling as when he arrived in that place called London. Nor was it the feeling of when he lost his arm and leg. This was different. As he was engulfed in darkness, Ed felt that he was falling. This felt like a dream. He saw all these insane hallucinations, many of them things he had seen in the alter-world of London. But then things became unfamiliar and the things he saw looked more and more futuristic. A humongous clock came to dominate his visions. The clock was ticking normally at first, but began to speed up. The second hand began spinning wildly, then the minute hand, and the hour hand followed until they were all just a blur whizzing around the clock face. Ed rubbed his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real. Apparently it wasn't, because Ed opened his eyes again and was looking at something completely different.

Ed saw a globe. It was green and blue and chockfull of landmasses that weren't at all familiar. Amestris, Xing, Drachma, Aerugo. None of those nations would fit on this globe. He noticed that it was spinning slowly from left to right, and that like the clock, it was speeding up. It then began moving in huge circles, as it was spinning. Edward kept count of how many times it made these circles. "34, 35, 36.." he counted in his mind. He figured there could possibly be some significance in this. "59, 60, 61..", the globe was slowing down. "73..74". It slowed to barely noticeable crawl. This is when Ed noticed that he was getting closer to it. He didn't know what that place was, but there was a lot of blue on it, and he was sure that it was water, and he was heading straight for a huge ocean. He flailed in defiance. "Like this couldn't get any worse!" he screamed. But as he approached he realized that he was in fact heading for a coast line. He was relieved…somewhat. Ed was still about to land on some unknown land, but in the back of his mind, he was ok, for he knew Al was safe.

As Ed plummeted, he started to see some more detail of where he was about to land. It was a cluster of islands right of the coast of a huge landmass. They were a greyish-brown, with patches of green here and there. There was a rectangular patch of green in the center of one island. He noticed lines, arranged in a grid and some criss-crossing others. He tried to glimpse more of this area he was about to land in but suddenly began to black out.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered to himself, eyes still closed. He was lying on a hard concrete floor. He heard a voice. Ed presumed he was yelling at him cause when he opened his eyes there was no one else around. A very bright light shined on him. "HEY BUDDY!" the voice shouted. Ed was startled up on his feet. He winced as the light shined over his eyes. He didn't know who it was, but they sounded authoritative. "Hobo's can't sleep here buddy, go find an alley or something, where the public won't see ya" the man said in a condescending tone. Ed, not wanting to argue, agreed. "Haha. Homeless piece of shit." the man muttered to someone else he was with. When the man turned his ridiculously bright light off, Ed got a glimpse at them. They were in a car. A weird looking one at that. It was round and baby blue with white stripes and a bunch of red and white lights stuck to the top. There were 4 letters on the side. Ed read them out loud. "…NYPD?"


	2. Chapter 2

Ed was strolling in awe around the vast and unfamiliar city. It was the dead the night and the streets were mostly empty save for the occasional car driving by. "It's gotta be at least a few hours past midnight" Ed muttered to himself. The cool, crisp air caused his breath to steam a little bit on every breath. He heard a whirring noise above him. Some machine flying around high in the sky above him. That's when he noticed how enormously tall the buildings were. They looked so bleak and oppressive to him. The windows were so small, they looked like they were falling apart and every inch of the bottom of the buildings were plastered with colorful graffiti. Ed noticed the color of the sky. It was a dark orangey color with a purple tint. He saw no more than 10 stars, 15 at most.

Ed came to an intersection. He looked up at the street signs, 125th and Park Ave. There was an elevated railroad which carried shiny silver trains. A train screech to halt as Ed turned the corner. There were loud booms that were progressively getting louder as he moved nearer to the source. They had a rhythm to them. "_Boom Boom tick Ba-Boom Boom tick_". Ed looked up toward the sound as realized it was music. Very loud music judging from the fact that it was resonation from an open window near the top of the building. He heard muffles lyrics as he continued walking searching for someone he could ask for an idea of what this place was. It sounded like someone talking in rhythm with the beat.

"_It's 1995 and now that I'm older stress weighs on my shoulders…"_

The music faded out as Ed kept strolling. Ed stopped as a realization hit him. "It's _1995?" _he blurted out. "Wait in back in Amestris its 1921! So that means I went forward in time by….74 YEARS!" Ed was dumbfounded. "Wait that globe I saw spu-", Ed was interrupted. "YO SHUT THE FUCK UP! IT'S 4:30 IN THE **FUCKING** MORNING!" Ed looked up at the enraged guy who was hanging halfway out the window and replied, "NO FUCK YOU! YOU RAT BASTARD I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THE HELL I AM AND HOW I GOT HERE!" "STOP SMOKIN ROCK FUCKING CRACKHEAD AND SHUT YOUR SHORT-ASS-WANNABE-SUPERMAN-WITH-A-FUCKING-RED-CAPE MOUTH BITCH! IM TRYING TO SLEEP I GOTTA GOT TO WORK IN 2 HOURS!" Ed was fuming. Steam was literally shooting out of his ears like a kettle that was boiling over. Ed was about to yell back when a woman in another building yelled "BOTH OF YOU GUYS SHUT THE HELL UP DONE WOKE UP MY BABY IM BOUT TO CALL THE DAM COPS SEE HOW YALL LIKE THAT!" They both kept quiet. Ed swallowed his pride and kept walking as he didn't want to deal with the police. He assumed the guys who woke him up earlier were police and they weren't too nice.

Ed made it another block when he was stopped in his track by a woman's blood curdling scream.

"HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPP!...…"her voice faded and he just heard sobbing. Ed instinctively ran towards the sound. "_If this place is like London..." _he thought to himself. "_…then I can't use alchemy here. I'll have to rely on close combat". _He came upon an alley way wear three men were trying to tear a woman's clothes off. "Not on my watch guys" Ed said with a smirk on his face. Ed threw his cape off ready to fight. "Oye what are you some kinda superhero whiteboy?" one of the thugs said mockingly. The guys walked out into the light revealing their faces. The first guy that spoke had caramel skin and braided hair with a black bandanna wrapped around his head and a black hoody on. "So you tryin' a fight dawg?" he said. The second guy came out of the shadows. He was very dark skinned and had a yellow hoody obscuring most of his face. The zipper was open showing a large chain with a diamond studded cross on the end. "Nah you know what it is?" he began. "It's that we got his girl wit us. Yo ya girl is fine money, but you can't keep her all to yourself. Ya gotta share maaaan!" He had a smile on his face as he spoke. The third dude, who was gripping the woman tightly by her arm, stepped out. He had pale white skin and dirty blond spiky hair. He had a black leather jacket and a small gold chain with a cross and a little guy hanging on the cross. "Oh shit another white guy in Harlem! Yo if I didn't have to kick your ass I'd be cool with ya kid!" he said laughing afterwards. There was a short silence as a train came by, screeching as it passed

The woman had brown skin, a little darker then the first thug. She had curly hair pulled back in a ponytail and was wearing a professional looking outfit. She had a double breasted jacket and a long skirt ending midway down her calves. Her jacket was ripped open but she was holding it closed with her free arm. "Help me…" she said sobbing, her face wet with tears. "Shuddup bitch!" yelled the dude holding her. He then backhanded her in the face. "THAT IS ENOUGH!" exclaimed Edward as he charged at him. The first dude got in Ed's way, swinging fists and aiming for a knockout. Ed ducked under his wide, untrained punches and caught him right in the jaw. Instant knockout. The guy holding the woman threw her to the floor as the remaining thugs double teamed Ed. The black guy charged him but Ed hit him in the solar plexus and when he bent over to gasp for air he gave him an elbow to the back dropping the guy on the concrete. The last guy came in with an uppercut that Ed caught and pulled the man toward him by his arm and dealt him a head butt to the nose, knocking him unconscious.

He helped the trembling woman up. She was bleeding from her lip and her upper cheekbone. She gave him a tight hug for at least a whole minute. Ed embraced her back. He was silent, but comforting. Ed, still breathing hard from the fight, said "I'm Edward Elric. What the hell are you doing out this late anyway?" Steam coming out of his mouth on every breath. "Um...I should be asking you that? You're like 15 kid, but I see you can defend yourself so that's not a problem. And by the way…it's Jackie. Jackie Jimenez." she said while her voice was still trembling. "Thank you so much. There's no way my words can express my gratitude. What can I do to repay you?" Ed was about to answer when he saw that the black dude was not unconscious the whole time and was getting his breath back. He began to get up. Jackie walked over to him before he could get on his knees and kicked the living shit outta him. "Take that pedazo de mierda! Hijo de puta stay the fuck down!" He exhaled in pain as he got the wind knocked out of him. He was confused as to what the hell she just said. "Anyways as I was saying..." She continued. "…what exactly can I do to repay you? I know a lot of people I can get you into a club, or get you a job and I know mad cute honies your age!" Ed looked down at the floor, his hair shielding his face. He said remorsefully, "I have nowhere to go…"

**A/N: Song referenced was "Runnin" by The Pharcyde. Stay tuned for the next chapter! **


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Ed and Jackie walked through the empty streets. Ed was grateful to the woman for letting him have a place to stay, it was cold and he was in an unfamiliar and unforgiving landscape. Jackie was also very grateful to Ed as well, he saved her from being raped after all. They walked silently through the city, neither saying a word but enjoying each other's company nonetheless. "Hey Ed?" Jackie asked. He didn't reply. "Ummm...Helloo?" Ed snapped out of the daze he was in. "Huh? What is it?" he mumbled. Jackie eyeballed him. "You said you were 16, right? What are you doing out this late on a Tuesday night? Don't you have school or something?" Ed scratched him head nervously. "I don't go to school. I'm not from around here." He said putting his head down as he began thinking of his home and how Al and Winry were doing. "Oh, well, where you from?" Jackie asked curiously. She was suspicious as not being from around here isn't an excuse for a 16 year old that doesn't go to school to be walking around at 5 in the morning. "I'd rather not talk about it," Ed said in a stern manner. "Don't you got friends or family? Like a daddy?" Jackie said jokingly. "What about a momma or a brother?" Ed stopped walking. "I said I don't wanna talk about it." He said on the verge of a burst of anger. "I'm sorry…" Jackie said apologetically. She felt bad for asking, as her family life was rough growing up, so she understood why he might not want to talk about his family.

After a few blocks, Jackie stopped walking. "What's up?" Ed said looking at her. "We're here dummy that's what" she replied jokingly. They stood in front of a huge brick building. Jackie opened the front door and they walked up some stairs into a large lobby with two sets of stairs on both sides and two elevators. The rust colored paint on the walls was chipping and seemed to be replaced by graffiti. Jackie pushed the button on the elevator and waited. She took a quick look at Ed and had to double take. In the light of the lobby, she was able to notice Ed's otherworldly golden eyes. "Are those contacts?" she asked. Ed stared at her blankly. "Huh?" he replied.

_Ding!_

The elevator doors opened. The two walked into the elevator and Jackie hit the button for the 15th floor. Ed leaned his head against the wall and involuntarily began falling asleep. Jackie nudged him with her elbow. "Almost there yet hun" she said.

_Ding!_

They walked out into a dimly lit hallway. Some of the lights were flickering and gave the place a haunted atmosphere. The hallway smelled of burnt, smoky pine trees, and when Ed turned around to look for the smell, he saw a hooded man at the other end of the hallway smoking what seemed to be a cigarette. Jackie walked up to an olive green door, which had a sticker that read 15F, and rustled around her key ring until she found the right one. She unlocked the door and turned on the lights in her apartment. It was small, but also warm and cozy. As soon as they walked in they were in the living room. To the left was the kitchen, and towards the right side was a short hallway that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. Jackie led Edward down to where he would sleep. "Alright. This used to be where my little brothers used to sleep until they decided they were too grown up for me and moved out. Anyway make yourself at home. Mi casa es tu casa ok?" Jackie smiled at him and closed the door as she left. The room had a bunk bed in the corner, a dresser with some weird big black box on it, and various other gadgets connected to it with wires. The walls were decorated with posters of scantily clad women as well as posters of different people Ed assumed were important. Tupac, Nirvana, Big L, Smashing Pumpkins…Red Hot Chili Peppers? Ok maybe not THAT important. Ed looked out the window overlooking the vast concrete jungle. The sun was rising. Cars were beginning to fill the once empty streets. He threw himself onto the bottom bunk as he had nowhere near enough energy to climb to the top. Ed fell asleep almost immediately.

Suddenly Ed was back in Risembool. He was with Al, who had his original body and they were sparring in front of their home. "Don't hurt yourself guys!" They looked over at their beloved mother. "Oh we'll be fine mom! We're not little kids anymore you know." He said smiling. Ed, wanting to impress his mom, did a transmutation. He clapped his hands together and attempted to turn a pile of rocks into a life size sculpture of a rose, but nothing happened to the rocks. Ed looked at where his mother was standing and nearly collapsed. He saw the mass of flesh reaching out to him as when he and Al failed to bring his mother back to life. And when he looked at his brother, instead of seeing his actual body, he was back in armored form. "Brother…what did you do to me?" he said. Ed reached out for his brother but he dissolved into a metallic dust. "AL!" Ed screamed tears rolling down his cheeks. Huge concrete building sprouted all around him. Winry came to him running. She embraced him crying. "Why did you leave me Ed?" she said sobbing against his chest. Her sobs gradually turned into an evil laugh. She looked up at him. What Ed saw paralyzed him with fear. The ouroboros symbol was carved into her face and blood was dripping from the scars. She had a sinister smile and her eyes were all white.

"WINRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

He woke up to Jackie kneeled down next to the bed holding his hand. Her curly hair was disheveled as if she just woke up. "You ok?" she asked. Ed sat up, but then hit his head on the top bunk. "I am now" he grunted as he was rubbing his head. Jackie snickered. "I bet you're hungry huh?" "I sure am" Ed said smiling, although he was still haunted by his nightmare. As they sat at the table eating breakfast, or brunch as Jackie called it as it was 1 in the afternoon, they watched the news on the same kind of black box that was in Ed's room. Ed was too amazed by how this thing worked. It was like moving pictures, and a radio! He didn't want to seem out of place so he didn't ask what it was. "So what exactly where you doing out so late last night?" Ed asked Jackie. She took a sip of her coffee, then a bite of her pancakes. "I teach night classes at Manhattan Community College. Hey you're like 15 and barely 4 feet tall I should be asking you that!" she replied. "Whaddya mean 4 feet tall I'm 4'11" that's almost 5 feet you trying to say I'm short so what I can kick your ass!" Ed said defensively. "Someone's gotta Napoleon Complex" Jackie whispered in a sing song tone. "Oh this is important so shush!" she told Ed. Jackie made the volume louder on the picture box thingy with a flat stick that had a ton of buttons on it. A stern narrator recited the news in a mechanical voice.

"_New York 1 news at 1 o clock is here to report that the economic downturn in the United States may be the worst since the Great Depression. President Clinton assures us that this is a temporary incident. But many Americans aren't reassured. The Oklahoma City bombing this past April rocked the nation. People are scared that the world is falling into turmoil. The situation in the Balkans is escalating. There are communist uprisings in South Florida's Cuban community. Earthquakes are hitting areas such as Western Europe and Brazil. Pakistan and India are having a full scale war and there is no end in sight. Many are pinning the happenings on a mysterious girl that appeared in Canberra last month. She is purported to have natural red eyes. This has caused the many to believe she is the antichrist. Religious groups around the world are preparing for what they believe is the end of the world. The young girl, who is no older then 16, has been taken into custody by the Australian officials for questioning."_

Ed froze as an image of the girl appeared on the screen. Brown skin. Red eyes. An Ishballan.


End file.
